In the “too good to be true” category

I just got a call from a reader, Violet J., who asked me whether she should continue to play sweepstakes or contests she’s been getting in the mail.

Violet is 82, lives in Kirkland and is on a fixed income. She has already spent thousands of dollars on such contests, sending $5, $10, $25 checks each time, hoping to hit it big.

“The more I played, the more companies invited me to play,” she told me. “It’s hard to resist.” She gets about 10 such letters a day. I told her to throw them out.

In the past, she played Contest America Publishers and others. Five years ago, Contest America misled Washington consumers, many of them elderly, into believing they could win big prizes by solving easy puzzles. The company paid the state nearly $50,000 in costs and attorneys fees and agreed to clarify its rules. Read about it here.

The odds of winning sweepstakes are one in 200 million. Sweepstakes scams often target seniors, promising great prizes. But consumers often have to pay a fee or buy something to claim the prize, if such a reward even exists.